The Cat's Meow: Try to Outrun This Robotic Feline

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Move aside, Grumpy Cat. This is the coolest cat you'll see on the
Internet today.

Researchers at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de
Lausanne have built a robot modeled after the anatomy of
several small cats, including a housecat and a cheetah cub. By
observing the robot and adjusting its features, the scientists
hope to learn more about feline locomotion and how to develop
faster and more powerful robots, able to achieve speeds of 1.4
meters per second.

The robot, called Cheetah-cub, has almost part-for-part
mechanical reproductions of feline legs. Each leg has three
segments proportional to those of a real cat, with springs
instead of tendons and small motors instead of muscles.

This structure gives Cheetah-cub excellent speed as well as
balance; the robot is able to sprint, meaning that at certain
points in its gait, all four feet are off the ground. With
a top speed of around 1.4 meters per second, Cheetah-cub is
the fastest robot to date among quadruped robots weighing less
than 30 kilograms (66 pounds).

Cheetah-cub does differ from a real feline in one significant way
— it doesn't have a head. That's because the robot just doesn't
need one.

The robot was intentionally designed without exterior sensors, or
the equivalent of eyes, ears and whiskers. That means Cheetah-cub
doesn't scan the environment before running across it; instead,
the robot relies entirely on its structure and its internal
sensors to stay balanced.

EPFL scientist Alexander Sprowitz explained that this ability to
"run blind," in a sense, is similar to the way certain infant
animals, such as wildebeests, are able to walk within an hour
after their births. This is possible, scientists believe, because
these animals' anatomies are optimized for balance.

That the robot doesn't need external sensors also highlights the
strength of its design and illustrates the way felines' bodies
have evolved for superior balance and agility, Sprowitz told
TechNewsDaily.

The headless construction means it's easy to adapt Cheetah-cub's
design by adding extra sensors or equipment in the head area. For
example, if the EPFL researchers decide to add exterior sensors,
such as a scanner to detect uneven ground, they will design the
hardware to fit into a head-like structure.

The researchers have yet to publish Cheetah-cub's blueprints, but
Sprowitz saidthat the robot is actually fairly easy to make. It
was constructed from commercially available and largely
inexpensive materials, and Sprowitz says that
anyone with the skill to make a model airplane could
construct a Cheetah-cub.

And Cheetah-cub will appeal to more than just robot enthusiasts;
it also has something to offer wildlife researchers. By studying
the way the robot moves, scientists will learn more about
real-life cheetah cubs and other felines.

Other methods of investigating animal biomechanics, which is the
study of biological structures and their functions, involve
outfitting animals with motion-capture suits or getting them to
run across pressure plates. Still other techniques involve
surgically implanting sensors. None of these methods are ideal,
either for the researchers or the animals. [See also:
E3:
'Call of Duty: Ghosts' Puts a Dog Front and Center ]

The EPFL researchers have previously built a robotic salamander
and a lamprey eel. This time, the team chose a cat as the model
for several reasons. One, they were interested in studying
high-speed quadrupeds. But, two, they needed a design small
enough to be easily manageable in the lab.

Dogs were dismissed because their physiques have been
significantly altered by domestication, resulting in many
different breeds with widely varied anatomical design. Cats are
less diversified as a species, so it's easier to make a robotic
blueprint of their physique.